Pennsylvania Abolition Society

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The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society, formed April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first president was James Baldwin. It was reorganized in 1784. It was incorporated in 1789 as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage and for Improving the Condition of the African Race. At some point after 1785, Benjamin Franklin became the organization's president. The society asked him to bring the matter of slavery to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which Franklin eventually chose not to do.